Can Real Estate Prices Continue Higher?

• The median price for all North County San Diego home sales – attached and detached increased to $493,750 in April 2014 compared to $485,000 in March 2014.
• Detached homes in North County rose 2.7 percent to $571,000 in April 2014 compared to $556,000 in March 2014.
• Year-over-year median detached price in North San Diego County increased 6.73 percent, compared to $535,000 in April 2013, continuing 21 straight months of year-over-year price increases.

Can it continue? The affordability index keeps dropping, and it fell from 33% to 32% last month. That means 32% of households can afford an average priced home in North County. This index got as low as 17% at the last market peak, so if history repeats itself, there is some room for prices to rise even higher.

The other factor that causes the affordability index to drop is rising interest rates. But the Federal Reserve is trying to support the housing market by keeping rates low. “Although we work through the financial markets, our goal is to help Main Street, not Wall Street,” Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said last month. “By keeping interest rates low, we are trying to make homes more affordable and revive the housing market…” So for now, it looks like the wind is at our backs.